...a blog about the pottery happenings in my life. I'm a potter, living in Los Angeles, California.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

It smells like Teen Spirit

When it comes to making I operate at different speeds and modes. I think this is normal for most people using their hands to make whatever it is they make. Perhaps it's an important deadline that pushes us, or an upcoming sale, or exhibition. But when we were younger, when it didn't really matter...as we sucked up every bit of information about clay we could... we just did it to have fun, because it was fun. We were kids. If you're lucky..you're still like that.

Do you remember when you were first learning how to fire a gas kiln? I do. It was a time of complete uncertainty. I was freaked out by it. The amount of responsibility was almost overwhelming. Not only were my pots in there, but a lot of other students too. My professor, Karl McDade was explaining why he was putting the kiln into something called body reduction. He said, "You smell that, Bobby?" referring to the smell of the gas. I took a deep smell and I said, "Yah... what is that?" He sort of gave me this little sideways smile and said in very serious voice, "That smell, Bobby.... is Teen Spirit".

At the time I had, of course, heard of the band, Nirvana, and had listened to them often. I didn't make the connection of Karl's statement to their song titled, "Smells like Teen Spirit" from the very popular album, Nevermind for a long time. I don't find any special or hidden meanings in the song and I could really care less what the lyrics say. The song itself is just good and makes me feel good. It's like a song for the hell of it. It's like what pots should be. Pots for the hell of it. Pots to play. Pots because it makes me feel good and because it makes you feel good. Pots for the smell of Teen Spirit.